, RCPRepublicans have a platter of good economic news to run on in the 2018 elections: a surging stock market, a 4.1 percent unemployment rate, high consumer confidence, and weeks’ worth of headlines showcasing companies handing bonuses to their employees while crediting the newly signed GOP tax bill. But they also have Donald Trump. Though so much positive economic data helps Republican congressional candidates counter the traditional midterm headwinds a party in power faces, the president continues to step on his — and his party's — encouraging news.